FORCHIN aka Fortune
by Rogue Clawdite
Summary: Luffy decides to hunt for treasure underwater with a diving bell, taking Zoro with him. Can Zoro keep his sanity in the low oxygen environment?


Author's Note:

Seems I'm only good at one-shots. This is mainly for my friend Chin. She can't seem to find any good One Piece fanfictions out there that really stay true to the character personalities and such, so I'm here to help relieve her of the hardships of not getting what she wanted. And since it is around Christmas time, how could I refuse? Uh...there's no actual time frame it took place in, but Sanji's the newest member so I'm just saying around that area.

.:F.O.R.C.H.I.N:.  
(a.k.a. Fortune)

The sea. That's all that there was nowadays. Sure it was fun the first few days, but now...blegh. Something needed to happen. Or at least in Luffy's mind something did. Sitting on the sheep-head of the ship as always, he gazed out, bored as ever. Occasionally he'd watch the seagulls, but even their bickering got old.

"Hey Zoro."

The man in the green sash was currently sharpening his blades. He tried to ignore him.

"Hey Zoro."

Once again. No answer.

"ZORO!" Luffy shouted at the top of his lungs. The voice was so loud even the seagulls looked down to see what the hell was going on.

"God damnit, what is it Luffy!" Zoro turned his head towards the rubber man. A brief four-second stare followed this. After a few blinks, finally something broke the silence.

"Whatcha doin'?" Luffy asked, mouth pulled into a wide smile. Another silence followed this. Zoro's eyes drooped in a loss of anticipation. He thought Luffy could have made up a better reason for bugging him.

"Nothing of concern to you, Luffy." With that he went back to sharpening his swords.

"If I wasn't concerned, I wouldn't have asked!" the straw hat kid exclaimed as he jumped off the sheep-head and landed next to his first mate. He studied Zoro's handiwork for about three seconds, before getting quite bored. Zoro was right. It wasn't of any concern to him. "I want treasure."

"Thats nice."

"Let's find some."

Zoro looked up from the blade. "And how do you plan on doing that? I don't see any islands or other ships. Besides, what do you want treasure for? Nami's the thief."

Luffy turned his head back towards Zoro. "I'm hungry. And treasure gets us food!" With that he made a fist pump at his own supreme logic. Getting to his feet, he ran into the living quarters of the Merry Go, where he saw Nami drawing out a chart of their current location, and Sanji commenting her as she did so. 

"Guys! Guess what!" Luffy burst out at them.

Sanji hadn't noticed that Luffy was still mobile. Looking up at the last second, he felt a large force push him to the ground. Spitting out his cigarette, he looked up and saw Luffy's once smiling face now in a daze. 

"Luffy, you idiot! Get off me!" was all Sanji had to say.

The rubber man looked up and the room was sort of spinning in his head. He felt a gentle hand lift him up and dust him off.

"You really ought to be more careful, Luffy. You could hurt yourself, as well as Sanji." Her eyes turned toward the pirate cook, who was dusting himself off, obviously a bit jealous.

"Sorry Nami, but I had the greatest idea!" His arms were flailing aimlessly and he was basically skipping in happiness. "Let's look for treasure underwater!"

Nami's brow furrowed in confusion. "Isn't there a problem with that?"

"What might that be?"

Nami's finger pointed to him as if it was obvious. "The fact that you can't swim! How are you supposed to find treasure if you sink like a submarine!"

With this, Luffy sat down. In about a second's time, he stood up again, already scheming a plan. Grabbing the back of one of Nami's maps, he took the pencil that been lying there. He sketched out what looked like a whale.

Sanji looked over Luffy's shoulder and chuckled. "You want to cook a fish? That's my job, Luffy."

"It's not a fish!" the straw hat kid exclaimed as he pointed to the lump on the page. "Can't you see that it's a boat?"

"You want to sink our ship?"

"Of course not, Sanji. We just have to make our own."

Nami stepped in and looked at the horribly drawn figure. "Out of what! Tangerines!" She grabbed the map from Luffy and set it back down on the table. "Luffy, if you're serious about searching for treasure, there are much safer...and more affordable ways to do this. I'm sure Kaya gave us some supplies...

That was a wrong thing to say. 

"Gomu Gomu No Rocket!" Luffy shouted at the top of his lungs. Smashing through a wall, he aimed surprisingly into the storage section of the ship. Inside was everything you could think of: Rope, Food from the Baratie, Anchors, etc. Nami and Sanji just looked at this as Zoro came in, eyes wide with almost an instinct of what happened.

"What happened, how bad, and how much will it cost to repair?" he asked as soon as he got in the door. Nami now had her face covered with her hand. Sanji just looked at the hole in the wall, wondering how the hell he wound up on this ship. The footsteps of the marksman, Usopp were heard as he also appeared.

"What's going on here!" Usopp screeched, mouth dropping open at the sight of the hole. 

"Luffy wants to go treasure hunting...," Nami managed to say and try to avoid more embarassment. "And God knows what he's doing right now."

Zoro ran through the hole and into the storage area. Scanning his eyes across the room, he saw the trademark straw hat sticking out from a bunch of meat. Striding over, he grabbed Luffy by his vest and held him up to his face. "Luffy, I know it's difficult for you, but would you stop acting like such an idiot!"

The only response he got from this was a bite of meat and some unintelligent gibberish. Zoro's eyebrow perked as his insides urged him to punch Luffy. It was just one hit. No one was looking. He could blame it on the collision of the Gomu Gomu Rocket. Yeah that might work. Then he shook his head. It wasn't worth it. Not for Luffy's current consciousness, but for his own energy.

Usopp followed in and looked at the two. "Luffy, are you insane? You want to go treasure hunting? But it's dangerous! Don't you care about your life? This would never happen if I was Captain-" 

With that being said, Nami kicked him down to the floor and stepped over him as she walked in. "Look Luffy, there's plenty of treasure on land. Wouldn't you rather not risk your life?"

Luffy folded his arms stubbornly. "We're going underwater and that's that."

The whole crew sighed. They knew that since Luffy was Captain, his word was basically law. "Alright..., lets see what we have," Nami muttered as she tried to sort out the cluttered items. Her hands fell upon a rope. Tracing the rope back to its origin, she found what looked like a diving bell. Her mouth curled into a smile. She could get Luffy to reach his goal, AND Luffy wouldn't die in the process. "Look what I found, Luffy!"

The captain's eyes turned toward his navigator. "Wow Nami! You found a big pot!" His eyes widened in wonder at the thing. Too bad he didn't know what it was used for or he would have been estatic.

Sanji walked in at this moment. "No, stupid. It's a diving bell. People use it to go underwater without having to go up for air as often and for exploring easier. Works wonders for people looking for seafood."

"You think we can use it for treasure hunting?"

"I don't see why not," Zoro put in, his arms folded, still not approving the idea, but going along with it. 

Nami looked up at Luffy as she checked the diving bell's condition. "Look's okay to me. You'll need a diving partner."

Everyone at once looked at Zoro. The sashed man looked at everyone as if he would wring their necks in the next 30 seconds. "Why do I have to go with him? Send Usopp!"

The long-nosed man shook his hands in front of him frantically. "But you're the more courageous, Zoro! And plus, isn't that your duty as first mate?" 

Nami put her hands on her hips and looked at Zoro. "Well I'M not going, and Sanji needs to get food ready, so it looks like you're the only one left." 

Zoro made a large groaning sound as he looked at Luffy. As usual, the rubber man showed a complete face of sheer mirth. Grabbing him by the vest, the swordsman started walking out of the storage room. "Just get the stupid thing ready. Tell me when. I'll go, but I won't forget this." Dropping Luffy on the deck, Zoro leaned up against the pole and watched the others drag the bell out. How did he get in this mess? If he had simply ignored everything Luffy had done, maybe he could have been napping by now.

Nami did most of the work, pushing the huge bell to the Merry Go's edge. Whistling to the two, they came like obediant dogs.

"You guys ready?" she asked.

Luffy made another fist pump. "Sure we are! Right Zoro?"

Zoro just glared at Luffy and spun his finger twice. "We sure are," he claimed dully.

Usopp and Sanji lifted the large bell up. Slowly, the two pirates walked under, before the bell dropped down with a large clang. Zoro then thought of something. "Hey Nami!" he shouted, which sounded muffled through the bell. "How do we get back up? Luffy sinks!"

Nami patted the bell with fake pride. "Oh don't worry, Zoro! You can lift him up first! You're strong! You can do it!"

Back inside the bell, Zoro just slapped his hand on his forehead while his counterpart was running around the bell shouting "Treasure" like a cult chant. He could feel the bell moving and he grabbed his rubber friend, holding him up so he didn't hit the water first. Trying to stay out of the way of his friend's flailing arms, he hopped in the water and felt the bell sinking them down to the bottom. Luckily, the air in the bell didn't go out, so they were safe. 

Hitting the bottom, Zoro placed Luffy down. "There, was that so difficult?"

Luffy's response was pouncing onto the sandy bottom and searching for his 'Treasure'. "Zoro, if you were a treasure chest, where would you hide?"

"I'd probably hide right up in your-"

"Of course! It's under all this sand! Come on, lets get digging!" His hands were like magnets to the sand, digging like crazy. Zoro knelt down and reluctantly picked up where Luffy had moved on to another area. His efforts weren't lagging, but they weren't enthusiastic either.

"Luffy, are you sure there is even treasure here at all!" Zoro had come to realize this after about ten minutes of digging. "We're talking about the whole ocean here! Can't you think of the slight chances that maybe there wouldn't be anything! Agh!" That being said, he walked to the wall of the bell and started banging his head on it.

"Hey Zoro! Lookit this!" the rubber man's voice exclaimed.

Zoro, however, was going crazy, because the moment he looked up, he was seeing things. Maybe it was the lack of air that caused this, or it could possibly be that he was just having a bad day that included Luffy in it. His was of Nami, but speaking in the same voice as him.

"Zoro! What are you doing!"

"Shut up, Nami! You're the one that got me into this!" he shouted.

"We'll, YOU'RE the one who encouraged him!"

"You like treasure! Why aren't you down here?"

Zoro's hallucination just smirked. "What? Do you think I'm crazy?"

Zoro blinked. "That is the assumption."

The image then turned into a much smaller figure, this time being his old and departed friend, Kuina.

"Kuina!" the swordsman said in awe. He had no idea that these were just visions in his head, so he continued to speak back at them as if they were real people.

"Zoro! You have to try harder!"

"On what?"

"You're weak! You have to try harder!"

"On what?"

"Youhavetotryharderyouhavetotryharderyouhavetotryharder!"

Zoro couldn't take it anymore. Letting out a huge scream he jumped into the hole that Luffy had been working on. Hitting the ground, he saw his captain staring down at him with his stupid, wide grin.

"Hey Zoro! We have to try harder to pull this out!"

All Zoro could do was scream again.

"Are you okay?" Luffy asked, feeling Zoro's forehead. "Wow, you must be claustrophobic or something. Well I found some stuff!"

The swordsman looked at Luffy's arms and saw him carrying what looked like a bunch of tin foil. "You brought me down hear to find that crap? 

"Zoro! Think of how much we could get for this stuff! We could make little sailor hats like the Marines wear and make fun of them when we get drunk!"

"That's it. We're going up...RIGHT NOW!"

Luffy just made his little laugh and nodded. Zoro stood up and picked up the captain. Then it hit him. "How do we let Nami know to let us go up!"

The rubber man blinked. Turning his head up to the top of the bell, he saw that the rop actually was knotted INSIDE the bell. "Maybe we could pull on that!"

That was the first bright moment that Luffy had all day. Zoro lifted Luffy up, and in result the rope did pull down. They repeated the process a few more times until they felt that Nami had gotten the idea.

And they were right. Up on the Merry Go, Nami had noticed the tugging on the rope and commanded Usopp and Sanji to start pulling it up.

"You know Nami, you could always HELP us!" Usopp shouted to her as he tried to pull what he could. Sanji was having trouble as well, mainly because his hands weren't his strongest body feature.

"C'mon you guys, keep pulling!" she demanded as she saw the bell come into view.

Zoro had to keep swimming as hard as he could to stay afloat. Rubber wasn't THAT light. He finally had to wince as the bell came up and the light shown down on them. He held out his one free arm and felt for the rope that Nami had sent down for them. Gripping his hand around it, they were swung up, landing on the deck like newly-caught fish.

Nami's smiling face beamed down at them. "What did you find? Gold? Silver? Berries? Oh! I know! You found old artifacts that we can sell for more than all of that!"

Luffy's arms opened, showing the tin foil. "I'm gonna keep it all for myself!" He smiled fairly widely and walked off to the sheep-head of the Merry Go to watch the sea again.

Nami's face was struck with confusion and anger.

Usopp just had his jaw wide open like normal.

Sanji glanced at Zoro.

"If you need me I'll be in the lime barrel," Zoro muttered.

Merry Christmas Chin nn  
Finished on December 25, 2005

"Emos are the only ones who suck at saying they suck" RC


End file.
